For Janise Poticha, unable to be near her sister ill with COVID, the ritual became a symbol of life with biblical meaning. And she’s not sure when it will end. (JTA) — Rabbi Janise Poticha had been ...

The shofar is once again reverberating through the late summer air as Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur quickly approach. It’s alarming and mystifying sounds are intended to wake us up from our spiritual ...

This weekend marks the culmination of the Days of Awe, a time of intense soul-searching that began with Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year. Jewish communities gather to listen to the trumpet-like ...

Growing up in White Meadow Lake during the 1960's, Eric Freedman had an unspectacular career at Hebrew school. He recalls daydreaming about basketball during classes and making the occasional ...

The most important ritual of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, is to hear the call of the shofar — the ram's horn of the Hebrew Bible that is still used today to mark the High Holy Days.

When Joseph Kaltmann blows a ram’s horn called a shofar, the trumpetlike sound is booming, piercing, just “really loud,” according to his son, Rabbi Areyah Kaltmann of New Albany. The vigor with which ...

The celebrated first Chief Rabbi of pre-state Israel, Rav Avraham Yitzchak HaCohen Kook (1865-1935) is recognized as being among the most important Jewish thinkers of all time. His writings reflect ...

The Torah urges us to return to God. One prominent term describes God’s hope that we, the Jewish People, will “lishmo’a b’kolo” (hearken to His voice; Deuteronomy 30:20). The word kol (voice) ...

(JTA) — Rabbi Janise Poticha had been blowing the shofar on her terrace every evening at 7 for five months when the daily ritual began to take on a new meaning. Her sister contracted COVID in August ...